


Can´t Ignore It If It´s Love

by xLoveMx



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: And angst, Fluff, Hearteyes, M/M, and eddie since we´re talking, buck being soft for christopher, for this one let´s pretend shannon never came back, season two rewrite of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-10
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-10-14 05:28:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20595467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLoveMx/pseuds/xLoveMx
Summary: Toasters could be a scary thing if you weren´t paying attention.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to "Laura has no idea what she´s doing," xD  
Basically I´ve been meaning to write for them since the beginning of season 2, but I never got around to it, but now, with season 3 fast approaching I figured I needed to get off my own ass and do this.
> 
> I´m gonna be honest and say I only have a vague idea where this is going, so stay with me. And kick my ass if I don´t post updates. :P
> 
> Also listen to the accompanying playlist here:  
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVeLii5lJFFXyLxATiYMmO-WtA0QBAvOF

Buck wasn´t quite sure how he´d gotten here.

Or well, no, that was a lie. He´d taken his car, but he wasn´t sure how he´d ended up in front of Eddie´s house of all places. Surely, they were friends, Eddie was probably the closest Buck had to a best friend, but he had other friends with couches, too. Friends who didn´t have kids he could be disturbing, by asking for a place to stay for the night.

“Or maybe I should have thought about getting my own place before moving out of Abby´s…” He muttered to himself, hand still half raised in the air to ring the doorbell.

That was probably true, but Buck had been living in that place for so long, pretending that he was alright, and that he still had a girlfriend, that he had just needed to get out. There was no way he could go back, not without losing that bit of self-respect he still possessed.

Chimney probably had a couch, too. He should just go and see Chimney. Even if that meant probably being a witness to whatever it was his sister and friend had going on.

Buck was about to turn away, when the door opened all of a sudden, revealing Eddie in his blue track pants and a white tank top.

“You´re just going to stand there creepily?” He asked with one eyebrow raised, though Buck could see the way his lips curved into a smile.

“No.” He quickly replied, drawing the word out a little. “Obviously not.”

“Well you wanna come in?” He must have noticed the duffle bag Buck was carrying, but it seemed like he had chosen not to comment on it. Which Buck was simultaneously glad and annoyed about. If Eddie had made a comment about it, he would have at least known if he was welcome here.

“Yeah.”

Placing his duffle bag by the door, Buck stepped into the house and waited for Eddie to close the door.

“So. Uh…what´s up?”

Eddie´s eyebrow was still raised as he moved away from the door.

“Not much. Christopher´s asleep already. They had a field tip at school today, and it completely knocked him out.” The smile returned to Eddie´s face, the one that always appeared when he talked about Christopher, the one that made Buck just a tiny bit weak in the knees.

“Oh, cool. Where´d they go?”

“The Pacific Aquarium. He´s been talking non-stop about getting to pet a shark.” Eddie chuckled. “I´m doubting it was a very big one, but you know, still impressed him.”

“Well that sounds pretty cool,” Buck replied with a nod.

“You want a beer?” Nodding again he ventured towards the couch, which was absolutely big enough to sleep on. So far, so good. Now he´d just have to manage to steer the conversation towards the desired subject.

“Yeah, sure.”

They both had a shift tomorrow, but a beer couldn´t hurt. He´d definitely been drinking more, or staying up entire nights, before a shift back in the day. Looking back on it now, that had definitely been irresponsible, and he´d probably not do it again, but he´d been fine nonetheless.

Once Eddie returned from the kitchen, Buck took the beer with a smile. They clinked their bottles together, before settling on the couch and Buck had to admit that he didn´t even mind the silence. Even if the impending question of whether or not he could stay the night, hung in the air between them.

“So…are you okay?” Eddie´s eyes briefly wandered to the duffle bag by the door, with Buck´s following him.

“Uh…yeah. I´m good. I mean…it was about time,” he shrugged his shoulders, before taking another sip of the beer. “I just…needed to get out of that place. And…find a new one, eventually.”

Eddie nodded, placing his empty bottle on the coffee table. “Well, you can stay here. We´ve got a guest room in the back,”

Buck turned back to look at him, shaking his head slowly. “Oh no. The couch is fine, honestly. It´s just for a night, or maybe two. Until I can find a room somewhere. I don´t want to intrude though,” His eyes immediately went into the direction of Christopher´s bedroom. They got along great, and he loved that kid, but he didn´t want to be an intruder in someone else´s home.

“Well, the guest room is yours. Or the couch, whatever you want.” Eddie chuckled. “But don´t go around complaining about back pain tomorrow.” His voice was teasing, and Buck suddenly felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders. He wasn´t even sure why he´d been so worried in the first place.

“Thanks, man.” He replied with an honest smile and Eddie grinned, briefly resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Any time.”

-

Eddie had given him some pillows and a blanket to make things a little more comfortable, but he´d been right: This could hadn´t been made to sleep on.

“Buck?”

A familiar voice pulled him from his slumber as he groaned slightly, cracking an eye open. The sun was already out, covering the whole living room in light. Christopher was right there, beside the couch, still in his pyjamas and only wearing one sock. He was smiling though, like always.

“Are you going to make me breakfast?”

Buck had no idea what time it actually was, but Eddie seemed to still be asleep, at least there wasn´t any other sound heard in the house.

“Yeah. Sure. Give me a minute,”

Christopher´s smile seemed to get even wider, and it was pulling right at Buck´s heartstrings. That boy was melting his heart every time they were together and honestly, it shouldn´t be that easy to make him do whatever he wanted.

Chuckling to himself he sat up, stretching his arms and legs. There were definitely kinks in his neck, and his back had seen better days, but he´d live. So with the blanket neatly folded and put away, Buck followed Christopher into the kitchen.

He might not have been a five star chef, but ever since joining the 118 he´d definitely picked up some cooking skills from Bobby, and scrambled eggs with toast was something he could do, right?

He knew Christopher liked them, because Bobby had made them for him a couple of times when Eddie had brought him along to the station. So with a general idea of where things were in the kitchen, Buck went to work, while Christopher watched.

Pouring them both two glasses of orange juice while they waited for the toast to be done, Buck couldn´t quite help but smile. This was nice. He´d never really had someone to make breakfast for. Abby and his relationship had been too short for these kind of things, and before her, there had been no one who´d stayed long enough.

He made himself breakfast sometimes, but it wasn’t the same thing.

“Well, what´s going on here?” Eddie stepped into the kitchen the same moment the toast came jumping out of the toaster, and Buck wasn´t quite sure which of the two had made his heart beat faster.

“Buck´s making me breakfast!” Christopher exclaimed with a smile as he picked up the toast, leaving the slices on a plate, before putting some new ones into the toaster.

“Us. I´m making us breakfast,” He ran a hand through his short hair with a smile. “I hope that´s okay,”

“Well you won´t see me complaining,” Eddie laughed, as he stepped into the kitchen and pulled a cup from the shelf to pour himself some coffee.

The scrambled eggs were done and Buck tried to focus on getting them onto their plates safely, while trying to will his heartbeat to slow down at the same time.

Toasters could be a scary thing if you weren´t paying attention. 

Settling down with the food at the table eventually, they fell into a comfortable silence, until Christopher started talking about how he´d petted a shark yesterday. It seemed to have left a lasting impression, and Buck did think that it was pretty cool. Not every kid could say he had touched a shark, not even the ones who lived here in LA.

“Okay buddie, we need to get you dressed and go. I´m going to have to drop by your abuela´s house before we get you to school. I promised to get her groceries.” Eddie eventually spoke, pushing the empty plate away from himself.

“I can do that.” Buck replied, without even thinking about it.

“You would?” Eddie asked, honestly surprised. Not because he wouldn’t have thought that Buck would offer, but because he would have never asked him to.

“Yeah sure, man. You let me sleep on your couch. The least I can do is help out.” Buck added with a smile. “If you want me to, of course. My car´s right outside. That way you guys don´t have to hurry,”

“That´d be great,” Eddie´s lips curved into a smile and his hand came to rest of Buck´s shoulder. It was warm, and stirred something inside of Buck he couldn´t quite pin down. “I got everything she needs last night. Most of it is still in my car, except for the stuff in the fridge. I´ll get it for you.”

Five minutes later Buck was all set, closing the trunk of his car and waving at Christopher, who was standing by the door. He was still in his pyjamas, but he seemed to have at least found his other sock.

“See you, Buck!” He called, his lips curved into a wide grin.

“You do know that you´re stuck with making him breakfast every day now, right?” Eddie joked with a laugh. “Once that kid´s got you roped in, there´s no escaping,”

And as he drove off, waving out the window still, Buck wondered whether or not that would be all that bad.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally another chapter! I know this has little to do with Season 3, but has anyone seen the new promo? I honestly can´t wait for the season to drop! *clutches heart*

It was shortly after eight, when Buck reached the house. Neither Eddie nor he would have to be at the station before 9, so they both had time, which he definitely needed, because there were more grocery bags than he could carry at once.

Buck wasn´t sure if those were groceries for an entire week, it looked like two weeks, minimum, to him. He couldn´t ever remember buying this much for himself, but then again he also usually didn´t cook for himself all that much.

Once he´d finally gotten all the groceries to the door, Buck rang the bell with his free hand, before picking up one more bag, so he could carry it inside.

“Eddie, mi amor…” The door was opened and Eddie´s grandmother appeared, seeming slightly taken aback by the sight that presented itself to her. “You are not Eddie,” She then acknowledged, and Buck offered her a smile.

“Nope. He had to take Christopher to school, so I offered to drop by. I hope you don´t mind,”

Stepping aside, she offered a smile. “Oh not at all. I don´t think we´ve been introduced,” She let Buck into the house, so he could drop the bags on the kitchen counter. “Me llamo Isabel. My name is Isabel.”

Buck wiped his hands on his pants, before holding one out to her. “My name´s Buck. Nice to meet you,”

“Ah yes. Christopher talks about you all the time.”

Buck felt his lips curved into another smile, one that might even have been a little brighter than the one before. “He does?”

“Si,” Isabel chuckled. “Buck did this, Buck did that, Buck promised to take me to see Santa Clause,” She smiled.

“Oh yeah, that.” He laughed, running a hand through his short hair, before heading back to the door to collect the rest of the bags. “Apparently I can´t say no. I love that kid.”

And that he did. Christopher had such a positive attitude towards life, despite all the hardships he´s had to overcome, and maybe he was someone they could all learn from.

Nodding, Isabel leaned against the kitchen counter. “Well I´m glad. He seems to care for you too,” She eventually moved to unpack the groceries, just as Buck placed the last bag on the kitchen counter. “Remind Eddie of dinner tonight?” She then added with a smile, “Oh and you are invited too, of course.”

Ah, so that was what all the groceries were for.

“Oh I don´t know if he´d…” Buck didn´t manage to finish the sentence, because Isabel was quick to interrupt him.

“Nonsense,” She waved her hand, “I invite you. I doubt Eddie would mind,” Isabel then added, and Buck couldn´t quite help the way his stomach fluttered nervously.

“Well, thanks. I´ll tell him,” He was quick to reply, when his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket.

**From: Eddie, 8.28am**

_Everything okay?_

**To Eddie, 8.29am**

_All good. :)_

**From Eddie, 9:29am**

_Great. See you in a bit! :) _

His stomach seemed to flutter again, and when Buck let his phone slide back in pocket he was smiling. “Thanks for the invite, I´ll see you tonight then.” He wasn´t quite sure why he was so excited about dinner with a woman he had just met, but Buck couldn´t quite wipe the smile off his face.

“Well I´m looking forward to it. Now get out so I can prepare,” She teased with a laugh, and Buck did just that.

-

It had been a rather quiet day at the station so far. They´d only been called out once, and that had been to retrieve a child, and a cat, from a tree. As much as Buck loved to save lives, he also enjoyed a quiet day, without any life threatening situations.

He had his laptop propped up on his legs, browsing through various housing sites. He needed a place to stay, he couldn´t be occupying Eddie´s couch forever, even though he had to admit that he had liked the morning they´d shared.

Surely, he´d lived with Maddie for a while, but before her arrival, and after her move, he´d been alone in someone else´s apartment. The truth was: He´d been holding on for Abby to return, even though he´d known that she wouldn´t, and even if she had, things would have never been the same as before.

“Found something yet?” Eddie let himself fall onto the couch, peeking over at the laptop screen.

“Huh?” Buck asked, his heart missing a beat. He´d been so engrossed in his own thoughts, that he hadn´t heard his friend coming.

“No. Not really.” Honestly, he hadn´t really decided whether or not he wanted to rent his own place, or just get a room somewhere. Living alone didn´t sound as appealing, considering what he´d been through, and the truth was: He didn´t spend much time at home anyways. “I won´t bother you for much longer though.”

Eddie shook his head. “You can stay as long as you like. Well, if you keep making me breakfast.” He was clearly teasing, but Buck didn´t mind the thought as much as Eddie would have probably assumed. It was nice, having someone there, even if it was just a friend.

“Right. Speaking of food, your grandma invited me to dinner tonight. And she told me to tell you not to forget about it.”

Eddie glanced at him for a moment, as if he was contemplating his answer, and it made Buck feel a little uneasy. He hadn´t thought about whether or not Eddie would care if he came along. This was clearly a family dinner, and he didn´t want to intrude.

Then Eddie´s lips curved into a smile, however, and all of Buck´s insecurities vanished into thin air.

“Sure thing. We´ll pick Christopher up after work and head right over. We can leave your car here, since you´re coming back to my place anyway,”

It sounded like a solid plan, so Buck only nodded, but his heart did that thing again, where it missed a beat for no apparent reason at all.

Eddie gave another smile, before he disappeared into the kitchen area, leaving Buck to himself. His laptop screen had gone black in the meantime, and he decided that he wasn´t going to find anything today. Tomorrow was still enough time to go on the hunt for a new place to stay.

“How come,” Chimney´s voice pulled him from his thought eventually and Buck glanced up, finding his friend grinning down at him. “That you two are the youngest in this place, and yet you´re the ones acting like an old married couple?”

Buck rolled his eyes, but his heart stumbled yet again.

-

The day went by without any major incidents, so they eventually showered and got changed. Buck spent a good ten minutes staring at his locker, when Eddie´s voice brought him back to the present. “You coming?”

“I…yeah. I just don´t have anything fancy to wear.” He then found himself admitting, which somehow caused Eddie to laugh.

“It´s family dinner, Buck. You don´t need anything fancy for that. In fact, Christopher once wore his Spiderman pyjamas to it, and abuela didn´t mind.”

Blushing slightly, Buck grabbed a dark shirt from the locker, pulling it over his head. “Right.” It wasn´t like he was meeting Eddie´s parents, and even for that, he probably didn´t need to dress up fancy. They were just friends after all, buddies. “I´m afraid I can´t offer a Spiderman pyjama, though.”

Eddie laughed at that, and maybe Buck would have to get his heart checked out. This surely couldn´t be healthy.

-

On the way back from school, Christopher was still talking about the shark he got to pet, and about how they were supposed to draw a picture of their favourite animal they´d seen at the Aquarium, and how he had, of course, drawn a shark.

Eddie promised to put the picture up on the fridge, as they pulled into the drive way of Isabel´s house, and Christopher giggled happily.

The door was already open as they got out of the car, and Isabel´s smile was bright. “There you are. Dinner´s almost done. Mi amor,” She kissed Eddie on the cheek and did the same to Christopher, before pulling Buck into an unexpected hug.

“Ah, the handsome young man who helped make dinner possible,” He chuckled, and Buck might have blushed again at that.

“It was nothing, really. Thanks again, for inviting me,” He then returned with a smile, before he was being pulled into the house by Christopher, who claimed that he was hungry. Besides, his abuela hadn´t heard the story about the shark yet.

Family dinner was nice, Buck found. He´d been having dinner with Maddie lately, of course, but sometimes their schedules were different, and while it was nice to have her around, this was different.

The whole evening was a mix of laughter, English, Spanish and talks about sharks, accompanied by the drawing Christopher had brought with him from the car.

“Dad said we could put it on the fridge,” He claimed, “That way Buck and I can see it every morning, when he makes breakfast,”

Buck almost choked on his dessert.

“That sounds perfect, mi amor.” Isabel replied, though she was definitely giving Eddie and him a look, so Buck decided to keep staring at what was left of his dessert.

-

It was past eight when they were finally done, and Christopher had gone to the living room to watch some TV, while Eddie was helping his grandmother in the kitchen. Buck had picked up the last of the dishes, carrying them over, when he heard their voices through the half closed kitchen door.

“Él te gusta?”

“Abuela…”

Buck´s Spanish was more than rusty, and part of him wished that it wasn´t, but then again it was probably not nice to eavesdrop on someone else´s conversation. Especially not if one of those people was nice enough to let you sleep on their couch.

So Buck made a point to make his steps heard, as he eventually pushed the door open. Both Eddie´s and Isabel´s heads turned to look at him, and somehow he wasn´t sure who seemed more like they´d been caught doing something they shouldn´t.

“Thank you, dear.” Isabel eventually broke the silence, taking the dishes from Buck, who offered a smile.

“Uh, of course. I think I saw Christopher nodding off on the couch, by the way.”

Eddie joined in with the smile. “Yeah, it´s been a long day. We should head home. Thanks for dinner, abuela.” He pressed a kiss to his grandmother´s cheek, who smiled again.

“Yeah, thanks. It was great.” Buck added, before pointing over his shoulder. “I´ll go get him,” and with that he was gone back to the living room to pick up Christopher, who barely stirred when Buck carried him to the car.

Isabel was standing on the porch, watching the two of them as she said goodbye to Eddie, handing over the drawing Christopher had made.

“Don´t forget to put it on the fridge, mi amor.” She then smiled, waving at the as they backed out of the driveway.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a little while to finish it, but I hope you guys like it! Thanks for sticking with the story and leaving comments and kudos! <3

“So how was family dinner?” Hen´s voice was teasing as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Buck only rolled his eyes at her.

“You know, sometimes I wonder why he´s so interested in my life. It´s like he doesn´t have one of his own,” He then replied, picking up the sandwich he´d just finished making.

“You know, I think he might just be a little upset you chose Eddie´s couch over his.” She then chuckled.

“Oh right. So can be the third wheel, whenever my sister comes over for some movie night that´s absolutely platonic, and nothing more, definitely not?”

Honestly, Buck loved his sister, and he wouldn´t mind her dating Chimney, she deserved someone who treated her right, but it seemed like the two of them were rather inclined on pretending that they were just friends, something he didn´t quite understand, considering how much time they spent together in close proximity.

“He would have gotten sick of me pretty quickly,” Buck then shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. People always got sick of him eventually. Abby definitely had. She wouldn´t have outright said it, of course, but there was a reason they had stopped talking eventually, and while Buck was thankful for the relationship experience, however short it had been, he´d still wished that things could have ended differently.

When he´d left the apartment he had written her a letter, but he´d also sent a text, letting her know he was looking for his own place, and that it was probably best if they ended things.

She hadn´t replied.

“Hey, you still there?” Hen was waving her hand in front of his face, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Huh?” Buck frowned slightly, noticing he´d stopped lifting the sandwich halfway to his mouth.

“I said no one around here´s sick of you, and we won´t be.” She offered him a smile, and Buck was thankful for the attempt at cheering him up. These people had become part of his family, and as much as they teased each other, he knew that Hen was right: They´d never truly be sick of him, and vice versa. They´d put his head back into the right place when he´d spiralled out of control, and they wouldn´t leave him hanging.

“Thanks Hen,” He returned the smile, before taking another bite, just as the alarm went off.

-

Buck spent the better part of that day squishing himself beneath what was left of a front porch, which had collapsed after someone had somehow managed to jump and fall straight through the wooden floors, and beneath it.

It wasn´t a life threatening situation, but one that he was going to spend at least a day, or two, being sore from all the twisting and turning, and pulling the guy out. Not that he was complaining.

Or well, maybe just a tiny bit, mainly because his thoughts drifted to Eddie´s couch, and how he´d already woken up with a sore back and kinks in his neck this morning.

Usually they all had dinner together, but Bobby had already left to meet up with Athena. There was something going on neither of them had talked about, but it seemed to be something more serious. Buck briefly wondered if he should shoot him a text, asking if he was alright, but maybe that would only make matters worse. He could ask Bobby if he was okay tomorrow. Or well, he´d probably see it if he wasn´t.

“You coming?” Eddie´s voice pulled him from his thoughts and Buck nodded, letting his phone slip back into his pocket. They´d taken his car to work this morning, so unless he was going to move his ass, Eddie would have to wait forever, or walk home.

The lights in the house were on when they pulled into the driveway, and Buck turned off the engine before following Eddie into the house.

“Didn´t know you lived here, Buckaroo,” Carla greeted him with a smile and honestly, if this kept going on, then him sleeping on Eddie´s couch would make the eleven o clock news at some point. “Good for you,” She then whispered into his ear, as she pulled back from the hug she had him engulfed in.

Eddie tried to pick up Christopher from school whenever he could, but on the days when they worked late, Carla was the one to take care of him. Something Eddie was very thankful for. Carla had immediately been smitten with the boy, and Christopher loved being around her. Granted, that was the case for most people, but it was helping immensely that they got along so well.

Eddie had one less thing to worry about, which was evident from the way he acted around the station. Anyone looking in from the outside might not have noticed it, but he was less tense these days, and more focused.

“Christopher´s already in bed. He wanted to wait up, but I read him a story and after the first page he fell asleep,” She chuckled. “I left some food in the oven for you, should still be warm.” Kissing both of them on the cheek, she grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

“She´s a saint,” Eddie smiled as he hung his coat by the door, followed by Buck, who did the same.

“She really is.” He agreed, while they headed for the kitchen. The whole room still smelled like the lasagne that was waiting for them in the oven, and even though Buck had come to enjoy cooking a lot more than he used to, he was glad that he didn´t have to prepare anything right now.

After finishing dinner in silence, not because there was nothing to say, but really because they were too busy enjoying the delicious food, Eddie headed for the shower, and Buck decided to lay down on the couch for a moment.

His back was still sore and he let out a groan, as he tried to find a comfortable position. It didn´t seem to be his lucky day though, which he should have known then moment Bobby had told him he´d be the one weaselling his way through the collapsed porch.

“I told you, we have a guest room,” Eddie´s lips were curved into a smile, as he stepped into the living room. When Buck lifted his head to look, he was wearing the track pants and tank top Buck had gotten to know so well over the last couple of days.

“I´m fine.” He replied, though he probably wouldn´t even been able to convince himself with a comeback_ that_ weak.

“Please, you sound worse than my abuela, every time she tried to get up after breaking her hip,” Eddie settled down on the couch beside him. It wasn´t really big enough for the both of them like this, but Eddie didn´t seem to mind.

“I do not,” Buck protested, though a laugh made its way past his lips. The truth was: He probably did sound worse, and he probably wouldn´t survive another night on this couch, at least not without doing some serious damage to his back.

“Honestly though, why is this couch so damn uncomfortable?” He twisted his head to look at Eddie, who shrugged his shoulders.

“It was already in the house when we got it. And I had no idea if we were going to stay here or not, so I never bothered getting a new one.”

“Oh.” Buck rested his face on his hands, catching a glimpse of Eddie from the corner of his eye. “But…you´re staying now, right? I mean…maybe it´s time to get a new couch?”

It wasn´t too long until Eddie´s probationary year would be over, and unless he was making a detour, then he´d be staying with the 118. Buck couldn´t quite help the way his stomach twisted at the sudden possibility of Eddie leaving LA to go back to Texas. Or somewhere else.

“Yeah…you´re probably right.” Eddie´s lips curved into a smirk, “I wouldn´t want to be responsible for ruining your back,”

Buck definitely had a response to that somewhere in his mind, but the fact that Eddie´s was suddenly running a hand over his back, made him forget all about it.

_Huh?_

Fingers were kneading into the muscles of his back and shoulders then, loosening the knots. Buck had to bite his lip _hard_ so he wouldn´t moan.

That would have been embarrassing, to say the least.

It felt good though, Eddie´s hands on his back, gentle and yet firm enough to relieve some of the pain that had come with sleeping on this couch, and spending half the day beneath a collapsed porch. It was, however, getting slightly uncomfortable in his lower regions, so Buck bit his lip a little harder.

He lost track of time then, but eventually the warm hands disappeared, and Buck blinked. He must have fallen asleep at some point. Twisting his head slightly to look at Eddie again, he found that he was blushing just a little.

“Sorry ´bout that,” he muttered, pushing himself into a sitting position.

“No need to apologize, it´s been quite the day,” Eddie replied with a smile. He patted Buck´s shoulder, before getting off the couch. “I´m going to head to bed, but maybe we can go looking for that new couch tomorrow?”

Buck felt his stomach flip, and simply nodded. “Yeah…sounds like a plan,” He then agreed. They both had the graveyard shift tomorrow, but that left them with more than enough time in the morning to go looking for some new furniture.

“Awesome,” Eddie ran a hand through his hair, smiling still. “Goodnight then,”

“Good night,” Buck was quick to reply, as he watched the other man disappear down the hall.

_Quite the day indeed_, he then thought to himself as he decided to head for the shower. The water felt nice on his skin, washing away the remains of the day, and only relaxing his muscles further.

It was nice, he decided, to have someone to take care of him. A friend, of course. He´d never been big on the whole friend thing, mainly because he´d rather spent his days hooking up with women. This was different though, he enjoyed spending time here, with Eddie and Christopher, and so Buck dried himself off with a towel and quietly moved his things into the guest room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone seen the new episode yet? Because I think I just died.

“Just so I´m getting this straight, or you know, _the opposite_ of that: You´re ditching me and our brunch date, because you´re going furniture shopping with the man you´ve had a boy crush on for weeks now?” Maddie´s voice sounded amused and really, Buck hadn´t wanted to talk to her.

He´d sent her a text, and of course she had called instead of texting back, like a normal person would have.

“I don´t have a crush on Eddie.” Buck insisted, keeping his voice low, just in case Eddie was passing by the guest room. He didn´t need him to hear anything about a crush, no matter how inexistent it was. Oh and speaking of Eddie, he really needed to get rid of the image of his best friend´s hands on his back, because it was making him blush.

_Thank God we´re not facetiming,_ Buck thought to himself, as he slipped into his shoes, the phone pressed between his ear and shoulder.

“Keep telling yourself that. Or better: Go over the facts, and then get back to me.”

“What facts?” He was already regretting the question the moment it had slipped past his lips.

“Oh I don´t know. Maybe the fact that you moved into his house. Or that you´re taking his son to see Santa Clause next week, or that you were invited to family dinner.”

“Chimney told you that, didn´t he?”

“Stop changing the subject,” Maddie shook her head. “I´m just saying. That sounds an awful lot like a relationship to me,”

“Says the women who is absolutely_ not_ dating my colleague, even though you hang out all the time, he installed most of the electronics in your apartment, and he knows your _go to_ drink, probably your _go to_ food as well.” Buck countered and honestly, he had great arguments, but the truth was: He didn´t stand a chance against Maddie, even if he was right.

“We´re friends.”

“Yes, and I don´t have a crush on…” The door opened and Eddie appeared, fully dressed and seemingly ready to go.

“Who´s got a crush?” He asked with a grin and okay, Buck needed to get a grip on himself.

“Maddie. On Chimney.” He quickly managed.

“I do n-“

“Okay, I have to go bye, talk to you later.” Buck quickly pressed the red button on his phone to shut her off. _Phew._

“That´s not news though, right?” Eddie added with another grin. “I mean…it´s obvious they like each other.” Pointing over his shoulder then, he nodded. “Carla´s already here. We can get lunch at Ikea. I mean…I assume they have something to eat other than hotdogs?”

Buck´s phone vibrated where he´d left it on the bed next to himself.

**From Maddie, 9.43am**

_Have fun on your date. ;) _

Oh she was absolutely going to pay for this.

-

It turned out that, going to Ikea on a Saturday was about the worst idea they could have had. And about a thousand other people as well, or so it seemed.

“Who even goes on a date to Ikea?” Buck muttered to himself, as they made their way through the bathroom section. Surely, there were lots of couples walking around, looking for new furniture or some decorations, but he doubted that shopping at Ikea classified as a date.

Not that he was thinking about going on a date with Eddie.

They were just buying some furniture. Best friends, and temporary roommates, could absolutely do that.

After what felt like an eternity, weaving their way through the store, going left and right so many times that Buck thought they might have been going in circles, they finally reached the section that had different couches on display.

“Do you think we should get a bigger one? Or one about the same size?” Eddie asked, while they wandered around.

It was the “_we” _that struck a chord in Buck though, and he completely forgot to answer the question.

_Of course he´s saying we, you idiot. You´re here together after all._

“Uh…a little bigger probably couldn´t hurt? I mean you have the space.” He eventually managed, rubbing his neck slightly. It wasn´t that he was uncomfortable, he could never be uncomfortable around Eddie, but his stomach was fluttering, still, and somehow Buck couldn´t quite tell why.

“True. Maybe one where we can actually stretch out our legs, and one that can be turned into a bed. I mean we do have the guest room, but in case someone else sleeps over.”

The guest room had initially been great for Carla, whenever she stayed overnight, like today, and it would work well considering Buck was working too, but they couldn´t share a bed, so maybe a futon of some sort wouldn´t be all that bad for the future.

Not that Buck was planning on staying forever, obviously, but he´d eventually have to get his own place as well, and he´d need something for people to crash on whenever they were staying over, and this was a great way of testing out couches who served that purpose.

“That one looks nice, what do you think?” Eddie was grinning still, as he let himself sink onto one of the couches. It was grey with high arm and back rests and, according to the sign, also usable as a bed, if you pulled out the bottom bit.

“One of our best sellers,” A young woman had stepped up behind Buck, giving him a smile. “We´ve never had a complaint about this one. Not only highly functional, but also very comfortable.”

Buck let out a small chuckle. “Oh that´s good, because I´ve been sleeping on the couch for the past two nights and it´s not bearable anymore.”

Her smile seemed to get a little softer, almost sympathetic. “Well I´ll be over there, if you guys decide on buying it, come by and I´ll arrange the delivery.” She nodded towards Eddie, who had somehow managed to bury himself under the pillows, peeking out at Buck with a grin.

“I hope you guys fix the lovers quarrel though. As comfortable as this couch is, there´s nothing better than sharing a bed with the person you love, and yours is particularly cute.” The woman then grinned, and Buck was almost dumbfounded for a moment.

He could feel his heart missing a beat and, in an attempt not to stand around like an idiot, he simply nodded.

“Yeah. Yeah we´ll be fine.” He managed with a sort of half smile, and woman nodded.

“Great, I´ll be over there.” And with that she was gone, and Buck was glancing after her, wondering why the hell he hadn´t just told the truth.

_We´re not a couple._

_We´re just friends._

_Who live together._

_For a short amount of time._

_I just happened to be there when he needed a new couch._

_No big deal._

And it really wasn´t a big deal, right?

“You flirting with the saleswoman? Tell me you at least got us a discount,” Eddie appeared next to him, lips curved into a grin, and Buck jumped.

_Jeez._

“I wasn´t flirting,” he quickly corrected, feeling a slight blush creeping up his neck. “But she said it´s their best seller, comfortable and all. Though really I doubt anything can be less comfortable than your old couch,”

Eddie was grinning still as he bumped his shoulder against Buck´s. “You try it then.”

They went around, looking at a couple more couches, but in the end they kept coming back to the one they had first checked out. Once they were sure, they headed for the counter, where the woman Buck had talked to earlier was still working.

She gave him a wink, which made him blush again, before finishing their paperwork. The couch would be delivered tomorrow, which would work out just fine, since they´d be out of work by around 8.

“Now that´s done,” Eddie smiled as they walked through the kitchen section, “Do you want to grab something to eat somewhere? I know I said I think they might have something other than Hotdogs here, but we´d also probably have to stand in line for about two hours,”

They had reached the toy section, behind which they could see the restaurant and yeah, this would definitely take a while. He wasn´t sure he wanted to know what the queue at the register was like.

“Sounds like a plan,” Buck then agreed, momentarily distracted by something that caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes.

“Go get in the queue, alright? I´ll be right back.”

Eddie followed the direction Buck was heading in, and his lips curved into a smile.

-

They went to a little sandwich place just around the corner from the station, after finally making it out of Ikea. Buck seriously considered buying the furniture for his future flat online.

The shift went by without any major hick ups, and they all even managed to have dinner together, without being interrupted by a call. All in all it had been one of the quieter nights, which really was rare here in LA.

They arrived home by 8.30am, with Christopher and Carla already up and about. The whole place smelled of pancakes and scrambled eggs and there it was again, that feeling of coming home. The one that made Buck´s stomach flutter and his chest feel warm.

“I´m taking Christopher to the Pier today,” Carla greeted them with a smile. “To give you boys some time to rest. There´s breakfast in the kitchen still.”

“Thanks Carla, you´re the best.” Eddie replied with a smile, bending down to press a kiss to Christopher´s cheek. “We can watch a movie tonight when you get home, alright? You can pick.”

Like anyone else was ever going to get to pick a movie in this house.

Meanwhile, Buck had reached for his bag and pulled out something. He bent down, too, holding out a stuffed animal in the form of a shark. “I got this for you, buddie.” He then grinned, “Saw it and it made me think of you. I know it´s not a real shark, but now you can pet this one every day.”

Christopher´s hands held onto the stuffed animal, as his lips split into one of the brightest smiles Buck had ever seen.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, his arms wrapping around Buck eventually, but never letting go off the shark.

“You´re welcome, little man.”

It was probably best for Buck that he didn´t turn around, due to being trapped in the hug, because he might have just forgotten how to breathe if he had seen the tender smile on Eddie´s face.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, after that episode on Monday I needed some fluff and dumb boys being dumb boys. Have you guys seen the episode yet? I don´t think my heart can take it!!

Buck´s head had barely touched the pillow, when the doorbell rang and pulled him back to reality. For a moment he waited, wanting to see if Eddie was getting up to answer the door, but it seemed the other man had been quicker with falling asleep. Not that Buck was complaining. He was tired, sure, but he could be up for a few more minutes while the new couch was put in its place.

So Buck eventually swung his legs out of bed, and headed for the door. Out there were indeed the delivery guy with the couch they had bought yesterday.

“You Eddie Diaz?” The guy asked, holding up a sheet to sign.

Buck glanced back over his shoulder for a moment, but the other man seemed to really be fast asleep. _Good for him, he_ thought, they´ve had a long shift after all and even though they had the rest of the day off, it would be nice to get enough sleep as possible.

“Nope. He´s asleep. I live here too though,” He then explained, and the guy shrugged his shoulders, holding the sheet a little higher.

“This says we´re supposed to take the old couch out. So we´re gonna do that first.” There was another guy, who had parked the truck in the driveway, joining them by the door. He gave Buck a nod, who did the same thing before signing the paper he was shown.

“Do you guys want some coffee? Water? I might even be able to whip up some sandwiches.” Buck offered as he stepped aside to let the men in.

“Coffee would be grand,”

And so Buck ended up in the kitchen, brewing a fresh pot of coffee with Eddie´s coffee machine, while the two man worked to carry out the old couch, and place the new one in its spot. He briefly wondered if he should have a cup himself, but the caffeine would keep him awake all day, and he needed to catch some sleep at some point today.

The couch looked great in the living room, a little bigger than the old one, but the grey fit in well with the yellow painted walls, and the couch as a whole brought some new flair to the living room. Oh and it was definitely going to be more comfortable to sit on, watching movies in the future.

Not that Buck was planning on staying forever, obviously, but Eddie and him could still hang out and watch a movie every now and then, especially with Christopher, even after Buck had found his own place.

Which, admittedly, he hadn´t really been looking for during the last two days. It wasn´t easy, finding an affordable place in LA, though. Unless you wanted to share a living space with struggling artists, which definitely wasn´t what Buck was looking for.

He was just picking up the two used coffee mugs, when Eddie appeared in the doorway, hair all tousled, and eyes still half closed from being asleep a moment before. Buck´s heart missed a beat and he very nearly let go of the mugs in his hands. Luckily for him, and the mugs, his reflexes prevented him from actually dropping them though.

“Hey,” He eventually managed, trying to get his heart to return to a normal rhythm, but somehow Eddie running a hand through his hair, and giving him a smile, wasn´t helping with that at all. “Sorry. Did they wake you? I told them to be quiet.”

“No. I was sort of…half awake, I think.” Eddie replied with another smile. “You should have woken me though. You didn´t have to do this alone.”

Buck shrugged his shoulders. “It´s fine. I wasn´t asleep anyway, and they were pretty quick. There wasn´t much I had to do.” He held up the mugs. “I offered them some coffee, tipped them and then they happily went off,” He chuckled. “So we can go back to bed.” To their separate beds, of course. Not that there was anything other than that implied in the sentence. Why would there be?

“Or we could try out the couch? For real, I mean. I did like getting buried under some pillows when we bought it, but it would be nicer to actually sit down and watch a movie, what do you think?”

For a moment Buck´s mind went back to the sales woman, who had assumed Eddie and him were a couple. Not that there was anything wrong with that. He enjoyed being someone´s boyfriend, and it would probably be even more fun if both parties of the relationship were present for the most part of it.

Not that he was thinking about being Eddie´s boyfriend.

“Ground control to Major Buck?” Eddie chuckled, poking him in the side, as he passed him on his way to the couch, and Buck almost startled.

“What? Yes.” He then quickly found himself replying, turning to follow Eddie over to the couch. He still hadn´t slept, but somehow spending time with Eddie, outside of work, seemed much better than sleeping.

“What do you wanna watch?” Buck´s Netflix watchlist was growing day by day, because there were just too many good shows and movies to watch, but no time at all.

“Something funny?” Eddie offered as he settled down onto the couch, letting out a content sigh. “Okay, this really is better than the old one. So much better,”

Buck laughed, shaking his head slowly as he settled down onto the couch next to Eddie. “Pretty sure this is the part where you thank me for coaxing you into buying a new couch, buddy.” He then spoke, leaning back into the pillows, as he reached for the remote to scroll through Netflix.

He´d just settled on some newly added comedy, when Eddie bumped his shoulder against his, smiling still. “Well thank you, Buck. For having my back with this. And your own, you know, in case you fall asleep on the couch again,”

“Very funny,” He then chuckled, suddenly very aware of how Eddie´s shoulder was still touching his. For a moment Buck almost held his breath, waiting for something to happen, for the other man to pull away, but Eddie didn´t. His body stayed lined up with Buck´s, feet up on the couch, and head turned towards the TV.

Buck remembered to press play eventually, even though he was still slightly distracted by the warmth that radiated from Eddie´s body. It was strangely familiar, but admittedly they´d never actually been this close before, other than when they´d been working in close proximity. Though he usually didn´t have time to focus on the closeness when they were trying to save lives.

Now though, with nothing to really distract him from Eddie being so close, smiling still and smelling like the shower gel Buck had seen him use before, it was almost impossible to ignore. Eddie´s hair was still a mess and alright, Buck was staring.

Hoping that the blush that was creeping up his neck wasn´t too visible, he turned his head towards the TV, trying to focus.

Surprisingly, it wasn´t really working.

-

Buck admittedly didn’t remember much of the movie. He didn´t remember falling asleep either, but when he was woken up, the warmth from earlier was still there.

“Buck! Dad!”

Buck blinked, trying to get some sort of orientation back. He wasn´t in his bed, obviously. The memories of this morning slowly resurfaced then: him making coffee for the delivery men, making sure the couch was placed in the right spot, Eddie offering to watch a movie.

Eddie.

There was an arm slung over him, Buck noticed, and when he finally opened his eyes he realized that he was stretched out on the couch, with his head in Eddie´s lap, and the other man´s arm around him.

_Huh._

Then he caught sight of Christopher rounding the new couch, appearing in the corner of Buck´s eye, which meant that Carla was here, too.

_Carla._

Buck shot up from his position, startling Eddie awake in the process. His heart was beating hard against his rib cage and for some reason he felt like he´d been caught doing something that wasn´t allowed. Which didn´t make any sense. They´d fallen asleep on the couch together, which was totally normal. It happened to millions of people across the world every day.

Nothing big about it, right?

There really shouldn´t be, and yet his racing heart was betraying him like the bastard it was.

“We won a huge teddy bear!” Christopher had reached the couch and settled into the space that had now freed up between Eddie and him, immediately making Buck miss the warmth he had been engulfed in during the last couple of hours.

“Did you, buddy? That´s awesome.” He eventually managed, risking a small glance at Eddie, who seemed to look even more dishevelled than before and, admittedly, not entirely awake yet.

“Oh yes we did. And guess who carried it all the way?” Carla chimed in, getting the two man to turn around. She was standing by the door, a huge stuffed animal in the shape of a teddy bear in her arms.

“You´re an angel,” Eddie finally found his voice again, lips curving into a smile. There was just something about that smile that made Buck´s heart skip another beat.

“I know.” Carla quipped with a slight chuckle, though she seemed to have her eyes set on Buck for some reason. Or maybe he was imagining things. “I´m going to get started on dinner. Could some take this?” She held up the teddy bear, and Buck used the opportunity to get a little more space between Eddie and himself.

“I got it. Uh…” running a hand through his hair, he took the stuffed animal while Carla headed for the kitchen. “You guys pick a movie and I´ll take this to Christopher´s room, alright?”

“Can you bring the shark?” The boy the asked with a smile, and Buck could help the little swoop his stomach did at that. “I like the bear, but the shark is way cooler.”

Chuckling, Buck nodded. “Sure buddy,” He then added with a smile, before heading into the direction of Christopher´s room to do as he´d been told.

“You need to calm down…” he eventually mumbled to himself, once he was sure that he was out of earshot. “Nothing´s even happened. Everything is just peachy…”

His heart, however, was telling an entirely different story.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear...that newest episode make me cry. Anyone else notice that they played a goddamn romantic Ed Sheeran song when Eddie arrived at Buck´s place with Christopher? I mean...come on. xD  
Anyway, here´s another chapter! Thanks for leaving comments, it really makes my day! <3

It wasn´t like Buck had been avoiding Eddie at work. The station was pretty big anyway, and he´d spent most of his time either working out or helping Bobby prepare their lunch. Between that, and still trying to look for a new place to live, he´d simply not had the time to have an in depth conversation today.

“You okay there, Buck?” Hen´s voice was the one pulling him from his thoughts, and justifications about not talking to Eddie, when she dropped onto the couch next to him.

“Huh? What? Yeah, sure. I was just browsing for places to live.” He then quickly replied, nodding at the laptop before closing it. The truth was: he hadn´t really been looking. Or well…looking, yes, but not reading any of the offers.

Buck simultaneously felt as if he should be as far away from Eddie as possible outside of work, and not ever leave that house again. It was confusing as hell, really, and he had no idea where to even begin searching for an explanation.

“Found anything yet? I´d offer you our guest room if Eddie´s kicking you out, but you´d probably be better off going to your sister´s place.” He knew things weren´t exactly easy between Hen and her wife at the moment, and as much as Buck would have always listened if Hen needed someone to talk to, he didn´t exactly want to get in between them. He probably wouldn´t really be helpful either.

And it wasn´t like he really wanted to leave Eddie´s place. He just had to at some point. It wasn´t a permanent residence, Eddie and Christopher had just been nice enough to let him stay for now.

“Hen?” Buck placed the laptop on the table, glancing over at her.

“Yeah Buckaroo?” Her lips were curved into a smile, and somehow he could feel his stomach swooping ever so slightly.

“How…did you know your wife was the one?”

She looked surprised and, if he was being honest, Buck was too. He wasn´t sure why he was asking her of all people. They got along well, sure, but this seemed to be a question he should have probably asked Bobby, but then again Bobby would have probably asked him where the question was coming from.

Buck wasn´t exactly sure about that.

“I don´t know…I guess you just know?” Hen shrugged her shoulders, smiling still. “She was the first person I was with that didn´t just take, you know? She gave, too. She was always there to support me, she was easy to talk to and…being with her just felt like coming home. It didn´t matter how hard my day way, coming home and just seeing her face made my entire day,”

Buck blinked. Okay, so that made sense. More sense than he had expected, actually.

“Is this still about Abby?” Hen´s voice pulled him from his thoughts once more, and he shook his head.

“No.” The truth was: Abby hadn´t been on his mind for a while. Not in a romantic way at least. Whatever they´ve had, it didn´t get the chance to fully develop, and maybe holding on to her as long as he had hadn´t exactly been the best decision of his life, but it had changed him, in a good way.

“Well,” reaching out to pat his shoulder, Hen gave him a nod. “Let me tell you: You´ll just know when you meet the right person. It might not happen in an instant, but at some point you´re going to look at them and think _Oh,_ and then you´ll know.”

“What if they don´t think the same thing about me?” The question had left his lips before he´d even completely thought it through, but now it was too late to take it back.

Hen´s expression went soft for a moment. “Well…I´d say go for it anyways. Otherwise you´ll spend the rest of your life wondering what could have happened. Imagine if Bobby had never brought up the nerve to ask Athena out on a date. Hell, even I wasn´t in the best place when I asked my wife out on a date, but she said yes anyways, and that turned my entire life around,”

_But what if that could ruin a friendship? _Buck wanted to ask, but then didn´t. Bobby and Athena had been friends before, surely, but he wouldn´t have considered them best friends, and if Athena had said no, or if that first date had gone badly, they would have just gone back to occasionally working together.

If this went wrong for him, he´d probably have to leave the station and also find himself a new place to live. He didn´t want either of those things to happen, so it was probably best to get over this stupid little crush he seemed to have developed over the past year.

“Hey,” there was a hand on his shoulder that startled Buck just a little, and he turned to find Eddie glancing down at him with a smile. “What are you guys talking about?”

Buck could already feel the blush creeping up his neck, but luckily Hen didn´t seem to want to turn him in. “Oh you know, trivial things. Did you know that a bolt of lightning contains enough energy to toast about 100.000 slices of bread?”

“No. I did not.” Eddie replied with a chuckle. “Very interesting fact. I do know that Subway footlongs aren´t actually a foot long.”

“That´s why we don´t go to subway. They´ve betrayed our trust.” Hen joked with a laugh, before pushing herself up from the couch to free up the space for Eddie, who promptly took it.

“Was that really what you two talked about?” He then asked, his face not at all judging, but more…curious than anything.

_Uh._

“Yeah sure. You wouldn´t believe all the weird facts Hen knows.” Buck absolutely hated lying to Eddie, but he wasn´t ready for the conversation that would ensue, if he told him what Hen and him had actually been talking about.

“I can only imagine.” Luckily the other man didn´t press on, and opted for another smile instead. “Oh, by the way. Remember that we´re taking Christopher to see Santa later.”

“How could I forget? He´s been talking about it all morning,” Buck replied with a chuckle. Christopher had been excited for this all week, so apart from getting to pet a shark it was all he´d been talking about.

“We´ll pick him up from school after work, and then head straight out. There´s always a massive queue with these things,” Eddie continued with a smile and Buck nodded.

They were interrupted by the sound of the siren then, and Buck could swear that Chimney was giving him a slightly judgemental look as he passed them by in a jog.

Or maybe he was just imagining things.

-

There was, indeed, a massive queue to see Santa, but Christopher wasn´t fazed by it at all. He even wanted to wait alone, leaving Eddie and Buck to wait for him by the nearby fountain.

“My boy is growing up,” Eddie chuckled, shaking his head slowly.

“Yeah…sometimes I think he might be more grown up than you and I combined,” Buck then replied and Eddie couldn´t help but chuckle again.

“Probably, yes.”

They sat in silence for a moment, but Buck didn´t mind. It was something he enjoyed a lot about this friendship, just being able to sit in silence for a while, without feeling the need to fill it. Back when he´d just been sleeping around, it had always been important to keep people interested, to make himself look interesting.

It wasn´t like that with Eddie at all. It never had been. In fact, it had been quite the opposite. Eddie had seen right through him from the start, had seen behind the mask Buck was always wearing whenever he got a little too insecure.

He glanced over at the other man, who had his phone out and was taking pictures of Christopher in line, and then Buck´s heart missed a beat, like it always did when Eddie was around.

So maybe that was the moment that it crept up on Buck. The thought that, maybe this wasn´t just a dumb crush he had on Eddie, and while it was almost some sort of epiphany, which should have been a good thing, it also terrified him to his core.

How was he supposed to get over _that_?

Getting over Abby had taken him long enough, and he hadn´t even been in love with her, but this? And all of it while living with Eddie. No, Buck had absolutely no plan on how to even start.

“Oh, here he comes.” Eddie´s voice pulled him back to reality, maybe even stopped him from going down a rabbit hole there, and Buck quickly focused on Christopher, who was walking towards them, accompanied by a woman dressed as an elf.

“Hey buddy,” He quickly smiled. “Was it good?”

Christopher nodded, leaning against Eddie with a grin on his face.

“What did you wish for?” the other man asked, and the boy simply shook his head in response.

“You can´t say what you wish for, then it won´t come true.”

A chuckle escaped Eddie´s lips and his eyes met with Buck´s briefly, before he turned to Christopher again. “Alright, let´s get you in the car and then we can go home and have dinner.”

Buck thought that sounded like a good idea, especially since cooking would distract him from his thoughts, which were still running wild. Eddie was already on his way to the car, and Buck was ready to follow, but the voice of the woman who´d accompanied Christopher stopped him.

“You two have an adorable son,” She told him with a soft smile, and Buck already had the words on his tongue. He´d have to tell her that they weren´t actually a couple, and that Christopher was Eddie´s son. Of course that didn´t mean that Buck loved him any less, that kid had stolen his heart the moment he had met him, but still.

But then something made him change his mind. Almost…involuntarily, because he had no idea why exactly those words were coming from his mouth all of a sudden. Instead of the planned explanation, Buck simply ended up saying “Thank you.”

His lips were curved into a smile, and his heart was beating a little faster, as Eddie called from the car.

“Are you coming? Christopher says he wants breakfast food for dinner, and I don´t think I can convince him otherwise all by myself.”

“Have a great night,” The woman added, giving a quick wave, before leaving Buck to himself. Or well, to Eddie and Christopher, who had somehow managed to turn his life upside within a couple of months.

He was screwed, but not in the worst way, if that made any kind of sense? It probably didn´t, because Buck´s head was spinning from just thinking about it as he moved towards the car, his heart missing another beat as he was greeted by Eddie´s smiling face.

“You know, I think there´s worse things than breakfast food for dinner,” He eventually chuckled, and Eddie lifted his hands in defeat.

“Well, seems like I`m outnumbered here.”

And maybe Buck was imagining things here, but Eddie didn´t seem to mind at all.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, this took me a little longer than expected, but I finally finished the new chapter! Angst was always going to be part of it, but I think this week´s episode didn´t help with that. xD Anyway, let´s hope the writers give Buck a break ( she says as she continues to write angsty feelings...)

They fell into a routine over the next week.

Buck didn´t go looking for a new place to live, and Eddie didn´t bring it up. They took Christopher to school in the morning and came home at night, with Carla having prepared dinner for them already. It was a surprisingly easy routine to fall into, and everything had been fine. Right up until this morning.

“You did what?” Athena was leaning against the kitchen counter, an eyebrow slightly raised. Buck wasn´t exactly sure why she´d ended up being the person he was talking to, but she´d come by to have lunch with Bobby and the rest of the gang before her shift started. Maybe she was the one who could give him actual advice without judging him. Or well, judging him less than his sister and his team mates would.

“It´s not like we were planning on doing it.” Buck sighed, feeling his stomach tighten slightly at the thought of what had happened this morning. It had been like a scene from some damn sitcom, and he entirely blamed himself for getting so comfortable around Eddie and Christopher.

They´d been trying to organize themselves this morning. Eddie had told him that he´d take the groceries and drive over to his abuela to drop them off, while Buck would drive Christopher to school. It was easier that way, neither of them would have to rush, and they´d still be at work on time.

Buck remembered saying something along those lines of “Alright, got it.” And heading out of the kitchen, but then Eddie had called for him to stop. He´d grabbed Christopher´s lunch from the kitchen counter, and handed it to Buck.

And then Buck had leaned in and kissed him. Not because he´d planned it, or because he´d been thinking about it in that moment, but because it had felt natural. It hadn´t been passionate, just a small peck on the lips really, before heading out. Something you´d do with your boyfriend, or girlfriend, in the morning before heading out.

The only problem was: Eddie was not his boyfriend.

So for a moment they had just stared at each other, not quite sure what to say, and then Buck had bolted for the door. Mainly to avoid awkward conversation, but also because Christopher had been calling from the living room that they´d be late.

“And you like Eddie?” Athena´s voice pulled him from his thoughts, and Buck could feel his stomach twisting slightly. “´cause if you two were just friends, then things surely wouldn´t have been as awkward as you make them out to be,” She shrugged her shoulders. “You would have laughed it off, gone about your day, but ever since you came in here, you´ve been acting different. Eddie´s been working out for a good hour, not coming up here, and you´ve been up here instead of joining him.” Athena eventually continued, and Buck could feel a slight blush creeping up his neck. Was it_ that_ obvious?

“So let me get this straight, or…you know, not quite,” The raised eyebrow returned in full force then, and Buck felt only slightly judged for seemingly making things so complicated. He simply shouldn´t have let it get that far. Eddie was the first male friend he´s ever had, or one that classified as an actual friend, at least, but then this crush had developed, which had been all fun and games, until he had developed actual feelings. “You guys live together, you bought furniture together, were invited to family dinner, you took Christopher to see Santa, and generally take care of him together.”

“How…do you know all of that?” Buck frowned slightly, glancing around the station to see if he could make out anyone listening in on their conversation. Surely, he´d talked to people about some of these things, but there was no way Athena could know about all of them, right?

“I´m a cop, Buck. I have my sources.” Waving him off, Athena shook her head. “So, am I correct in my assumption that you like him?”

“_Like_ is a bit of an understatement,” Buck sighed, burying his face in his hands for a moment. On one had it felt great to finally admit it out loud to someone, but on the other hand it was absolutely terrifying. He couldn´t lose Eddie´s friendship. It was what had kept him going, the fact that he finally had someone he could talk to, and someone to take care of in Christopher. Surely, Buck had always been good with kids, but he´d never cared about one as much as he did about Christopher.

“Have you tried telling him that?” Athena interrupted his thoughts once more, and Buck surfaced from behind his hands.

“No…I…I just…I can´t.” He could feel his chest tighten at the thought of Eddie finding out just how severe Buck´s feelings for him were. He´d probably regret letting him into his house, or spending so much time with him.

“Listen, kid, I can´t tell you what to do.” Somehow Buck suspected she was going to try anyway. Not that he´d mind any sort of advice right now, because he could feel himself spiralling down a hole where he´d continue to be alone with his thoughts, and that didn´t seem like a good idea. “But…you´re clearly miserable, so maybe talking to him isn´t the worst idea? Maybe you can get this all resolved. Eddie doesn´t strike me as the type to quit a friendship, just because of some feelings involved. And who knows? Maybe you´ll be surprised at the outcome,”

Athena reached out to rest a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly, before pushing herself away from the counter to go look for Bobby, leaving Buck alone with his thoughts once again.

-

Eddie didn´t come upstairs within the next hour, and Buck wasn´t in the right mindset to go downstairs and have that conversation. Athena was right though, they needed to talk, because they lived together, and if they didn´t get this resolved, Buck wouldn´t be able to go home tonight.

“Not your home…” he quickly reminded himself, shaking his head. The whole problem with that was, however, that living with Eddie and Christopher felt like home. He´d spent most of his life living, or rooming, with someone, but coming home at the end of the day had never actually felt like coming home. Not until he´d met Eddie.

Groaning, he buried his face in his hands once again, trying to shut out his thoughts. Of course that wasn´t working, and somehow Buck wasn´t surprised.

“You okay?” Eddie´s voice was the one pulling him from his thoughts this time, and Buck´s heart missed a beat.

“I…yeah.” That was a lie, of course, but it had become such a usual response for him during the past few years, that it came out almost automatically.

Finally removing his hands from his face again, Buck glanced up to meet Eddie´s eyes, his stomach dropping to his knees. He already had a mental imagine of him packing his things and moving out crossing his mind. Where was he going to go? Maddie would ask too many questions, questions he wouldn´t be able to deal with. Living with Chimney would probably be his best option, though he assumed that he´d end up telling Maddie about everything they talked about anyways.

“Look…I…” Buck sighed. “About this morning. I´m sorry…I was just…I didn´t…”

The siren went off right there and then, saving Buck from stammering on any further.

“What are you two waiting for?” Hen called, as she passed the two men on her way downstairs. “We don´t got all day!”

Funnily enough, neither did Buck considering the consequences this talk could have on his future living situation, and his friendship with Eddie, but they couldn´t let the rest of the crew wait. So instead of saying another word, Buck pushed himself up from the couch, passing Eddie as he headed downstairs, feeling his stomach twist once again.

-

The scene they found themselves at was pretty crazy. Half the houses on the street were on fire, with some of the drain covers shooting more than five feet up in the air left and right. They had already called for backup, but it was going to be a while before it arrived, and the little boy, that was stuck in one of the burning houses, couldn´t wait that long.

Buck had been up on the ladder, trying to reach the window, but another blast had shaken the entire firetruck, causing him to almost fall over.

“Fuck,” in fact, Buck had barely held on to the ladder, preventing himself from hitting the pavement face first. He lowered himself to the ground, looking around. Bobby was trying to get an update on the backup while assessing the situation, with Hen and Chimney were taking care of some of the people who´d come out of their houses, needing medical attention.

“The ladder is stuck, we can´t reach the window.” He eventually shouted, his mind already turning over all the possibilities of how to get to the boy. Due to the explosion it was probably hard to get in through the front door, especially with most of the ground floor already on fire.

Buck didn´t even make it past that thought, when Eddie was on the ladder all of a sudden, taking the leap onto the roof of the house. It was a big leap, and Buck could feel his heart stopping for a moment.

“Eddie, what are you doing?” He called, his heart seeming to remember that it needed to beat, starting again and accelerating to a dangerously high rate.

“It´s the only way to get to him!” Eddie´s reply came promptly, though he wasn´t even looking back. Instead he made his way further up the roof, trying to get in through one of the already broken windows on the other side.

“We need to help him!” Buck turned, his eyes finding Bobby again. “If we can get the truck closer to the house then I can go up there and help Eddie!”

Going in without a plan wasn´t a good idea, they all knew that, but he couldn´t just let Eddie risk his life. What if he didn´t make it out? What if they couldn´t talk all of this out? As much as Buck was afraid of the outcome, he was more afraid of losing Eddie.

“Come on!” he called again, just before another explosion rippled through the air, silencing all conversations for a moment.

“Eddie? Eddie? Are you okay?” Buck eventually managed, his voice barely a whisper as he waited for a response over the earpiece.

However, there was none.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don´t think my heart can take anymore episodes. I mean I`m loving all the content we´re getting, but at some point I´m just going to cry. xD Anyway, here´s the newest chapter, enjoy! <3

“Eddie? Eddie come on!” Buck tried again, but there was still no response from the other end of the line. He was already halfway turned around, ready to storm into the house, when Bobby got the hem of his jacket, holding him back.

“What…?”

“You can´t just go in there with no plan. You´ll die.” And deep down Buck knew that the other man was right. Still, ever fiber of his being fought against the rational thing to do, which was to try and put the fire out so they could get to Eddie, and the boy that was still trapped inside.

“Come on, back up is here.” Bobby then continued, and Buck turned around, slightly confused. Chimney and Hen were moving people into the ambulance and under the firetruck, and before he could even ask what that was all about, he heard the noises. Turning his head upwards, he caught sight of the approaching planes. They were planes that were used during the bush fires, which haunted LA every year. It took his mind a moment to make the connection, but when it clicked Buck´s resistance against Bobby´s hand on his jacket dissolved.

He hurried to slide under the truck and to safely, wrapping an arm around a young boy that laid next to him, his eyes filled with tears. “Hey, it´s going to be alright, okay? Just close your eyes and hold on to me,” He whispered, and the boy nodded, pressing himself closer against Buck.

They stayed under the truck for what felt like minutes. In reality it probably wasn´t more than one, but it felt a hell of a lot longer. The planes had unloaded the water, which had gone down onto the street and the houses, splashing against all the people who had hidden under the trucks. Bobby was the first back on his feet, while Hen and Chimney were pulling people out and helping them up. Buck picked up the young boy, looking around for anyone who might belong to him.

“Tommy!” a woman, which Buck assumed to be his mother, eventually came rushing towards them, wrapping her arms around the boy. “Oh thank you!”

Buck, who really hadn´t done much at all, simply nodded before looking around. The fires everywhere seemed to have been put out by the water, including the ones in the house Eddie had stormed into not moments ago.

_Eddie._

Buck could feel his stomach twist at the thought and he turned to face the house, about ready to run in and go look for his best friend. Not even Bobby would be able to stop him this time.

He didn´t quite make it that far, though, because the moment Buck´s feet began to move, the door of the house burst open, Eddie pushing through as he carried a boy on his arms.

Buck´s world stopped for a moment, and he could feel his heart missing a beat, before he was reminded that there were still people around who needed his help.

“You´re okay.” He eventually managed, taking the boy from Eddie´s arms. The other man was alive, but he looked a little beaten up, his face almost entirely black from the smoke.

“Yeah. I´m good.” Eddie managed, though Buck could tell that he was out of breath.

“We tried reaching you over the earpiece, but you didn´t answer.” He wasn´t even going to go into detail about the horrible scenarios his head had come up with. His heart was still beating hard against his ribcage, as they handed the boy over to Chimney for further treatment.

“Yeah? I lost that when the explosion hit. Sorry.”

There was nothing he had to apologize for, really, it hadn’t been his fault after all. Not directly anyways, and still Buck wanted to take him by the shoulders, and shake some sense into him. He didn´t though, and instead went back to work.

-

It took them two more hours to secure the entire scene, and ensure that everyone was stable enough to be taken to the hospital. Eddie had ended up coughing more than doing anything useful, so Bobby had told him to ride along to the hospital for a check-up.

Buck had insisted on coming along, but Eddie had told him to pick Christopher up from school instead.

“It´s Carla´s day off, and I don´t want to worry her, or Christopher.”

That Buck was probably more worried than the two of them combined, didn´t quite come up in conversation, which was probably why he ended up driving to Christopher´s school to pick him up.

“Is Dad okay?” He didn´t sound worried at all, maybe just a tiny bit confused as to why Eddie hadn´t picked him up along with Buck.

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. Your Dad is fine. He just ended up helping Chimney out with something. He´ll be home soon.” He offered the boy a smile, as if to reassure him. “How about we order some pizza and watch a movie?”

That definitely did the trick for Christopher, who made his way towards the couch to settle down, while Buck ordered their favourite pizza, and also some Chinese take-out for Eddie, because that was definitely easier to heat up later.

7pm came and passed, and so did 8pm, but still no word from Eddie. Buck could feel himself getting anxious, but he tried his best to keep it hidden, for Christopher´s sake. In an attempt to distract himself, he cleaned up the pizza boxes and tucked Christopher into bed eventually. He read him a story, and then another one, because tomorrow was Saturday, which meant no school, before turning the lights off.

He sat on the couch afterwards, trying to distract himself by watching some silly show on TV, but ended up checking his phone every five minutes anyways. Buck had half a mind to try and call, but if Eddie was in the hospital he´d probably turned his phone off anyways. He knew how crowded hospitals could be, and Eddie was just there for a check-up, so he´d be a while, right?

After the 5th episode Buck had almost nodded off, when he finally heard the keys turn in the lock. He was up in an instant, adrenaline seemingly rushing through his veins, as he waited for Eddie to appear.

All the awkwardness of the morning seemed to be forgotten in an instant, and before he could say anything, Buck´s feet had already taken him to the door, his arms wrapping around the other man.

For a moment the world around the seemed to fade away, leaving Buck with nothing but the feeling of Eddie´s arms wrapped around him, and the other man´s familiar scent clouding his mind.

“Are you okay?” He croaked, his voice not quite sounding like his own. He could feel Eddie move, just pulling back ever so slightly to look at him.

“All good. Just took a little while, they had lots of people coming in for check-ups from the scene, and I know you and Christopher were home safely, so I told them I could wait.”

Shoving at him slightly, Buck shook his head. “And you couldn´t have texted? I was worried.” Eddie was closer than usual, and Buck feared he might do something stupid eventually, so he stepped back a little.

“Sorry. I´m all good though. They put me on an oxygen tank for an hour, and Bobby gave me the day off tomorrow. So maybe Christopher and I can get started on drawing some Christmas pictures. Not that he´d really need my help for that,” Eddie chuckled, and Buck could feel the weight of the world being lifted off his shoulders.

“We had pizza and watched Finding Nemo. He still thinks the sharks are the coolest,” Buck then laughed, shaking his head slowly. “I ordered you some Chinese, so you can warm that up if you want.”

“Wanna join me?” Eddie then nodded, as he headed towards the kitchen, like he hadn´t spent the last hours in the hospital, and like Buck hadn´t accidentally kissed him this morning. Buck wasn´t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. Or which of the two he wanted it to be.

It didn´t seem to have ruined their friendship, but there was still a tiny problem: Buck wanted them to be more than friends. Sighing to himself, he settled onto the couch, waiting for the other man to join him.

Some movie with Liam Neeson was on TV, but Buck was only half paying attention. Eddie´s side was pressed up against his again, like that day they had bought the couch, and it made his stomach flutter ever so slightly. He could feel the events of the day finally catching up with him, making it harder and harder to keep his eyes open. He was still aware of Eddie´s presence next to him, but the longer they sat like that, the more comfortable Buck seemed to get.

Eddie was his best friend. They should have been able to sit like this without making a big deal out of it. Whether he had feelings for him or not. Surely, they would have to end up talking about it, because it felt wrong not to tell Eddie how he felt. He was the only person Buck actually wanted to talk to about his feelings, but funnily enough he was the person those feelings were about.

He briefly thought about Maddie and Chimney, and wondered whether or not they wished that they could talk about their feelings for each other with someone. It was obvious that there was something going on, something neither of them were quite ready to address though. Maybe Buck would have to call his sister in the morning.

“I´m glad you´re okay…” Buck eventually mumbled, followed by a chuckle from Eddie.

“Don´t worry. You´re not getting rid of me that easily. You´re stuck making us breakfast.” He muttered back, as Buck felt himself drifting off to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here we go. This is the last chapter, which is the reason it´s a bit longer than the other ones. I thought about splitting it in two, but then I figured it was the right thing to end things this way. I want to thank everyone who stuck with me, and these two idiots. Whether you were there from the beginning or just came into the mix right now!  
Thank you for leaving comments and encouraging me, that really does mean the world to me! I hope you all enjoy the last chapter <3

Buck woke before his alarm was supposed to go off the next day, which was a good thing, considering he´d forgotten to set one in the first place. The whole house was still quiet, and he needed a moment to figure out what exactly had happened last night.

He remembered putting Christopher to bed, and then waiting for Eddie. The other man´s face appeared in front of his eyes, and the way Buck had simply hugged him, like he hadn´t planned on ever letting go. He could feel his cheeks heating up slightly at the thought, and it took him a moment to realize that he was still on the couch. In a horizontal position.

He could feel Eddie next to him, warmth radiating off his body, and his chest rising and falling slowly in his sleep. Buck could tell he was curled up against the other man, one arm thrown over his chest, and his face seemed to heat up even more at that.

Okay. So they had fallen asleep on the couch again. No big deal, right? In fact, if he was really quiet, then Eddie might not even wake up. He really shouldn´t, it was way too early considering he had the day off, and the whole getting up quietly thing had absolutely nothing to do with Buck not wanting to face his feelings, or the situation he was in.

So he closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the familiar scent of Eddie once more, before slowly, but surely, peeling himself away and getting off the couch. The other man mumbled something under his breath, but Buck couldn´t quite make out what it was. He felt himself shiver at the loss of contact and warmth though, trying his best to ignore the unpleasant feeling. So instead of focusing on it, he went to take a quick shower and got dressed, putting out all the ingredients for pancakes, so Eddie would only have to mix them together when he and Christopher got up.

He also quickly texted Carla that she could take the day off, since Eddie was going to stay home, before eventually grabbing his bag and heading off, but not without quickly picking up a blanket and draping it over a still sleeping Eddie.

-

Buck was one of the first at the station that morning. The other guys´ shift hadn´t finished yet, so he went to the work out section to get out of his own head. The problem was: he could still feel Eddie´s warm body pressed against him, and for some reason his own shirt smelled like Eddie. It was probably because they obviously used the same laundry detergent, considering they lived together, but it was still distracting to say the least.

Chimney was the first of their team to eventually show up, and Buck could tell that he was still wearing the same clothes he´d worn yesterday, which meant that he probably hadn´t been home last night.

“Morning Buck.”

“Are you sleeping with my sister?”

Chimney almost tripped over his own feet then, which really should have been answer enough.

“What? No. Are you sleeping with Eddie?”

Buck was pretty glad he´d put the weights down already, otherwise he might have dropped them onto his own feet.

“What? No.”_ Not in the sense you´re thinking, anyways._

His mind immediately went back to this morning, and how comfortable he´d felt with Eddie. That was the whole problem though: Sure, Eddie was beyond attractive and Buck had absolutely thought about sleeping with him, but what he felt for him went deeper than just sexual attraction. He enjoyed living with Eddie, he loved getting to spend time with Christopher and him, taking the boy to school, making them breakfast and going to family dinner on Friday nights.

He was well aware that things couldn´t always go on like that, but he just wasn´t ready to confront his feelings and be rejected. So far he´d never really let himself get into a relationship, or close to one, other than with Abby, and even that hadn’t really been considered a real relationship. He´d always cut people off before they could get too close, but with Eddie he didn´t even stand a chance.

Buck had never felt this way before, which was probably the reason the whole thing was throwing him off so badly.

“Hey, Earth to Buck?” Chimney´s voice pulled him from his thoughts, and he looked up. “I asked why you´re not sleeping with Eddie, because the sexual tension the two of you´ve had since the beginning is through the roof. You´d have to be daft not to notice,”

“Well I´m not daft. At least not enough to not notice you´re sleeping with my sister.”

Chimney, who was rolling his eyes at Buck then, eventually threw his hands up in defeat before walking off, just as Bobby passed them on his way upstairs into the kitchen.

“What was that all about?” He asked, and Buck really didn´t want to talk about it. He wished his mouth would share that opinion though, because before he could even wave the whole thing off, the words had already come spilling from his lips.

“Chimney´s calling me daft, because I´m not sleeping with Eddie, which I would, you know, if it was just about that. At the same time he´s also trying to keep his relationship with my sister a secret. And I get it, I don´t have a say in who she´s seeing, but I´m still her big brother, I want her to be happy.”

Frowning slightly at his own outburst, Buck could feel his cheeks heating up again. He obviously hadn´t meant to say all those things out loud, especially not to Bobby, but here they were, and for a moment he felt like the whole crew was staring at him from different parts of the firehouse.

“Well, first of all: You´re right, you have no say in who your sister is seeing, but I think she could have done way worse than Chimney, so you probably shouldn´t worry about that,” Bobby eventually spoke, followed by a “Thanks, Cap.” from Chimney, who was up on the gallery by now.

“And I´m going to be honest with you here, Buck: Most of us are surprised you and Eddie haven´t worked things out yet.”

Blinking in confusion, Buck glanced up at the other man. “What?”

“You guys live together. You take Christopher to school each day and pick him up. You even took him to see Santa Clause. Then you bought a couch together. All of that stuff? That´s something you do when you´re in a relationship. I mean seriously, yesterday you were about ready to run to your death, just to save his life.”

“The whole living together is just temporary, I…” Buck trailed off, knowing how weak his own argument was going to sound. He hadn´t been looking for a new place to live in weeks. In fact he´d never actually started putting an effort into searching.

“I´m just…not ready to put our friendship at risk.” He eventually added, feeling his stomach twist ever so slightly. “I don´t…deal with rejection that well.”

“I´m with Chimney on this one, you really are daft.” Hen chimed in from her place on the stairs and Buck glanced up, meeting her eyes. “You really think Eddie would let you in, let you this close to Christopher, take you to family dinners and let you pick out a couch with him, if he didn´t feel the same way you did?” She raised an eyebrow at him, though her lips were curved into a soft smile. “Remember how I told you to go for it anyways? Well this is me telling you to go for it, because there´s absolutely no way any of us are wrong about this.”

Buck frowned again, glancing back between Bobby, Hen and Chimney. “You guys…you guys think he likes me too?” He then asked, feeling his heart begin to beat faster in his chest.

“Of course he does,” a familiar voice piped up and he glanced up to find Chimney holding out his phone, with Maddie on the screen.

“Really, you facetimed my sister?” Buck was aiming for judgemental, but he couldn´t quite help the way his lips curved into a smile.

“Yes, he did. And she´s here to tell you to go and get your man. I actually can´t believe you´re still here, waiting. I didn´t raise you to be a coward.”

“I´m not…I can´t just go back home. I have a shift to work.” He countered, but Bobby had already moved a step forward, resting a hand on his shoulder.

“We´ll be alright without you for an hour.” He then smiled, and Buck could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins all of a sudden. He knew he´d have to get up and go, before his nerves got the better of him, so that was what he did.

Grabbing his keys, he left his bag in the locker and headed for the car, not even willing to roll his eyes at Hen, who was yelling “Go get him!” as he left.

-

His heart was beating hard against his ribcage, and Buck was having trouble breathing right as he stopped the car in the driveway. Eddie´s own car was still parked there, which meant Christopher and him hadn´t left.

_Good._ Or maybe not, depending on how you looked at the whole situation. The entirety of the 118 seemed to think that Eddie liked him too, but there was still a little voice in the back of his mind, telling Buck that he could have gotten it all wrong.

In fact, he was still trying to silence it as he turned the key in the lock, stepping inside.

Christopher was sitting on the couch, paper and crayons scattered all over the table, glancing up when Buck entered. “Everything okay?” he asked, just when Eddie poked his head out of the kitchen.

“Buck, what´s up? Something wrong?” He looked genuinely worried for a moment, so Buck quickly shook his head.

“No. No, everything´s great. Just forgot something.” He then answered, waiting for Christopher to go back to drawing, before he pushed past Eddie and into the kitchen.

God damn it, how was he even supposed to start this conversation?

“Are you sure everything´s alright? You look…like something´s up.”

Pulling his bottom like between his teeth, Buck took a deep breath as he fiddled with his hands. He should have thought about how to start this conversation beforehand, really. “I…no. I mean…yeah. I wanted to talk to you…about that…kiss.” It was the first time he´d said it out loud, and his heart was still beating loudly in his chest, just thinking about it.

“I was going to say I`m sorry about it, but…I´m really not, because…because I like you, Eddie. I´ve always liked you, I think, but…it´s gotten more intense over time. When I moved out of Abby´s place I wanted to be here with you, because you´re my best friend, but also because I had long been over her. I want this. I want to be with you, and with Christopher. I´ve never actually had a real family besides Maddie, but this…it feels right, and this whole thing? It terrifies me, because if you don´t feel the same, then I could lose it all and…”

Buck was rambling, he was well aware of that, but he couldn´t stop himself. Eddie seemed to have found a way to do just that though. He´d closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to Buck´s.

For a moment Buck didn´t move, too surprised to even process the whole thing, but then he could feel Eddie´s hands on his face, and the kitchen counter pressing into his back, and he came back to himself. His arms wrapped around the other man, pulling him close, goose bumps breaking out on his skin from the simple act of a kiss. He´d thought about this, even dreamed about it, but none of it could compare to the real thing. The way Eddie´s body felt pressed against his, warm and familiar, sending shivers down his spine.

“So…uh…does this mean you like me too?” he eventually asked, as they pulled apart for air, and Eddie´s chuckle sent a wave of happiness through Buck.

“You really have to ask?” he then smiled, brushing their lips together again. Before Buck could answer, however, a squeal caught their attention and they turned to find Christopher standing in the doorway, a big grin on his face.

“So Santa did make my wish come true!” He exclaimed, and Eddie couldn´t help but laugh as he pulled away from Buck ever so slightly, but not without intertwining their fingers together.

“You wished for us to get together, buddie?” he asked with another chuckle, and Christopher nodded.

“Of course, someone had to give you two a kick in the butt.” He moved forward with another grin, and Eddie and Buck used their free arms to wrap them around Christopher as he leaned against them.

“Well. I`m very glad you did.” Eddie replied, ruffling his son´s hair, before leaning in to give Buck another kiss.

“Ah yeah.” Buck agreed, “We might also have to get everyone at the 118 a gift basket, then.”

Eddie gave him a look, before breaking out into laughter, which echoed through the house for a long while after. A house Buck had called home for longer than he might have allowed himself to say those words out loud.

Or maybe it wasn´t the house that he was going to call home from now on. Home were four eyes and two heartbeats, that were refusing to let go of him as they all stood in the kitchen that morning, and Buck figured that he was absolutely okay with that.


End file.
